A Back of the Bus Idea

Why did the Shelby County Arts Council (SCAC) agree to accept funding for a Civil Rights play from White Rock Quarries (WRQ), an egregious violator of the rights of the minority residents in Vincent, Alabama's River Loop community? Answer: because in the campaign to deceive it's all about appearances. Whitewashing corporate dirt doesn't make it brighter - it only serves as a false cover for the darkness underneath.

A story ran recently in the Shelby County Reporter touting the importance of a new Civil Rights play "Too Many Questions: An Evening With Virginia Durr" based on a commissioned work by the Vulcan Park and Museum in 2009. Virginia Durr was the wife of noted Alabama lawyer Clifford Durr, a staunch advocate for "those accused of disloyalty during the New Deal and McCarthy eras."

Clifford Durr was also Rosa Park's attorney during the tumultuous Montgomery Bus Boycott and a life-long friendship developed between the Durr's and Parks that endured for the rest of their lives.

The Durr's, like Parks, were tireless champions for right in an era of momentous wrongs.

We don't believe the characters of the play would approve of having their names and lives bastardized like the SCAC is doing by allowing a corporate villan like WRQ to be involved in the stage production about the struggle for human rights.

WRQ has their own brand of 'wrong' in mind that they intend to inflict on an entire area of black folks in small town Alabama with the development of a huge mining operation.

The SCAC is dead wrong to allow this charade of 'corporate good citizenry' by following the mindset of dirty money for a good cause washes away all sin and the fight for Civil Rights is over.

Not in certain areas of Shelby County it isn't. It never was.

The play is described as "very educational" an opportunity for area high school students to "learn about Civil Rights." We suggest that if the SCAC genuinely wants to educate high school students about the modern day experience of the plight of African Americans in Shelby County, they can start by talking to the residents of the River Loop.

The history of the Civil Rights movement in America is important. We do believe in continuing to educate young people about one of the darkest chapters in our American history after slavery. What we don't believe in is the usurping of a cause by those who would commit current sins against a segment of people they're posturing themselves as caring about.

Environmental racism is the new Civil Rights fight for African American communities and it's a fight they are losing more often than winning. When it comes to corporate and political greed, people of color, often living in lower income communities, are disproportionately and specifically targeted every day in the 21st century.

Landfills, mining operations and other invasive toxic industries are rarely found in white enclaves and suburbia. The worst toxic titans calculatingly and cunningly seek out the areas of perceived least resistance - areas where they think there are disposable segments of populations who are made even more vulnerable by corrupt politicians and officials eager to cash in on clandestine deals entered into out of the public eye.

Backroom deals don't begin to describe what happened in Vincent when the idea of a massive quarry was conceived.

Secret meetings between quarry representatives and local officials took place more than once, in another county, and they were restricted to groups just small enough to barely remain within the parameters the state's poorly written Sunshine law and Open Meetings Act.

County officials were also frequently meeting with those same representatives in their county offices. When records were requested by Vincent residents through FOIA from the county planning department, what came back appeared to be heavily edited.

WRQ even made the bold move of hiring the up-until-recently president of the powerful Shelby County Commission, Lindsey Allison, as their "additional counsel." Ms. Allison's law practice was exclusive to family law. To this day, she has never revealed how much she was compensated by WRQ, and despite more than one ethics violations complaint, the state Ethics Commission determined 'no wrongdoing had occurred.'

When multiple parcels of land were purchased in the area of the River Loop under well-cloaked shell companies, at highly inflated prices, not one inch of dirt belonged to a black resident. Every transaction was between white folks benefiting white folks. 

Otis McCrimmon

WRQ president, Jim Hurley, sent a letter to one of the more well-known residents from the area, Otis McCrimmon, only after millions had been spent by his company securing land. The intention of the letter was thinly veiled and was clearly an attempt to placate and pander to Mr. McCrimmon's justifiable ill feelings towards WRQ's actions. 

Mr. McCrimmon, like most of the folks on the River Loop, likes his life just the way it is. He moved on to family land from the city, and believed that was where he would live out his days, surrounded by kinfolk, and enjoying the peaceful picturesque area of Vincent they call 'home.' For Otis McCrimmon, some things are more valuable in life than money:

Otis McCrimmon, a 68-year-old lifelong Vincent resident, said he's worried about how a 45-acre plot owned by his family would be affected by the quarry.

McCrimmon said his land faces the proposed quarry in two directions.

His land and the land where the quarry plans to put a pair of retention ponds is only separated by a fence. McCrimmon said he was never approached about selling his land for the quarry, and if he had been, he would have likely said no.

Jim Hurley's feeble attempt at damage control was not at all well-received, particularly because it came through a local elected district representative, Vincent City Council member Bridgett Jordan Smith. Mrs. Smith, also a minority, infuriated her citizens by remaining persistently tone-deaf to their pleas for help against the quarry. Her behavior throughout the entire quarry process has been shocking in its arrogance against those she is supposed to 'work for' and 'represent' in local affairs.

Residents in the area consider her to be a sell-out to her 'own' people, and believe that she is acting for personal gain - either in a more powerful elected office and/or access to the monies the quarry will generate for the town. Adding insult to injury is the fact that she is related to some of the families in the area.

By enlisting Smith to deliver the letter, Hurley garnered even more animus from the River Loop residents, who perceived his choice of delivery as pandering to a low denominator - 'you're their black representative you carry the water for me.'

Bridgette Jordan Smith even had the audacity to channel the words of Martin Luther King as justification for a 'yes' vote on the quarry in public just last year. It had all the effect of a fire hose and dogs on her constituents, and brought gasps of shock from quarry opponents.

White Rock's representatives beamed with approval.

Mr. McCrimmon is on record as saying this about Jim Hurley: "In all this time that man has never set foot on my doorstep, never talked to me directly even though his property is right next to mine now."

What's next to Mr. McCrimmon is land that once belonged to the current Mayor Ray McAllister's daughter-in-law and former Vincent Zoning board member Robbie Greene. WRQ bought out the entire Greene family properties, including Robbie's parents parcel, for millions. All of them abruptly made a quick exit to another county.

Ray McAllister then moved from zoning board member to Mayor in the 2008 election.

Thanks to all of these unfortunate events, the entire community has been told to shut up and forced to the back of the bus. City leaders have refused all citizen's requests for one-on-one meetings and a community vote on the project. All of Vincent will have to pay the price of the county and city's 'police state' methods, but no one will suffer more from this forced action than the community of the River Loop.

If they were here today, Rosa Parks and the Durr's most assuredly would not approve of what is happening to Vincent's minority population. They would not believe that the process has been fair, just and non-discriminatory. In fact, we envision this is just the sort of instance all three would have worked to correct if they were called on for help.

What the SCAC is doing, by accepting WRQ's money and sponsorship, especially for a project of this nature, is a slap in the face to the memory of what the Durr's stood for. 

Throwing money behind the right cause from the wrong people is more than hypocritical - it undermines the purity of what is supposed to be good and just. There are numerous organizations in Alabama who could have helped sponsor the Durr endeavor, WRQ should not be one of them. Where is the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and why didn't they get involved?

All of the organizations aligned with the production are giddy with excitement over their idea and probably do believe they are standing on the moral high ground. That said, it's not plausible anyone in Shelby County is unaware of the outcry from the citizens on the River Loop against the 1,000 acre behemoth set to open right in the heart of their community.

No one who can help is listening to them. They're too busy trying to look like they care to take the time to act as if they do.

And they're missing an important lesson in human rights.

If any of them were to ask the River Loop residents how they feel today about what the county, the city and WRQ has done to their lives, they would hear echoes of some familiar words once spoken by the great Rosa Parks: "Why do push us all around and treat us like we're second class citizens?"

There's an education about Civil Rights alive right now in Vincent down on the River Loop, that's different than a stage production of decades ago, but it speaks in similar ways with an impact no put on event ever can.

We challenge the SCAC and all the others involved with this production to go and listen to those voices and learn what it really feels like to be 'black right now' in Shelby County.

So Say We The Opinion Board Of The Vincent Alabama Confidential

Shelby County Arts Council (205) 669-0044
Vulcan Park and Museum (205) 933-1409

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NPR--Secret 'Watch List' Reveals Failure To Curb Toxic Air

NPR and the Center For Public Integrity team up for a four part series "Poison Places: Toxic Air, Neglected Communities" kicking it off with the release of an EPA "secret watch list:"

Pollution violations at more than 1,600 plants across the country were serious enough that the government believes they require urgent action, according to an analysis of EPA data by NPR and the Center for Public Integrity. Yet nearly 300 of those facilities have been considered "high priority violators" of the Clean Air Act by the Environmental Protection Agency for at least a decade.
About a quarter of those 1,600 violators are on an internal EPA "watch list," which the agency has kept secret until now.

The report cites a "lack of modern equipment and rules" and a "system of self-reporting" as major contributors to the rampant, serial pollution that's continuing to threaten communities and lives. They're exactly right, but industry propaganda spins out fear and misinformation to the masses by claiming that increased regulation and equipment updating will result in a "loss of jobs and unnecessary rate hikes."

What these industry disinformation spin masters leave off is the documented increase in costs to Americans for health care, higher mortality rates and the overall increasing toll on human health from less stringent regulation and oversight. These industry apologists would have us believe that profits by the polluters trump citizen's rights to clean communities.

That idea came about during the Bush era EPA which instituted a steady decrease in the value of a human life as a means to institute less regulation.

It was a big lie then and it still is now. 

view full searchable map »

Incredulously, only one Alabama company wound up on the serial offender list: Chemical Lime Company of Alabama in Calera.

Region 4 EPA recently released their 'answers' to the residents of North Birmingham in response to the Walter Energy contamination (Deadly Deception). The 'answers' and explanations from the EPA are couched in generalities and offer no real solutions to the resident's plight.

On the heels of media attention and the environmental justice meeting that occurred in Birmingham this past July, it's our postilion that no one at that meeting heard a word. Inside sources tell us that the meeting was never supposed to be public, and it only went public because of pressure from the right people in positions of influence.

The EPA acts schizophrenic at times, listens to too many voices, contradicts itself and occasionally does things that defy logic unless you're a mental patient. This may be one of those instances. Why do they seem more concerned with keeping secrets and remaining less than transparent in releasing information that serves the public good? There's no excuse for that, but we're interested to hear their explanations.

Allowing these toxic titans to self-police and self-report is inexcusable. So is misleading the public by keeping internal 'secrets' designed to protect corporate America at the expense of citizen America.
*additional reading: "Many Americans Left Behind in the Quest for Cleaner Air"
Air monitoring results N. Birmingham--locations to view data

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Circuit Court Rules Against Conecuh Woods Landfill Developers Motions

In a ruling filed October 25th, Conecuh County Circuit Judge Burt Smithhart handed the Town of Repton and their feisty Mayor, Terri Carter, a huge victory against the 5,100 acre landfill development planned for the area.

Opposition to the landfill has been fierce from the Mayor and a well-organized citizen group who can breathe a little easier for a few reasons now. The war is not over by a long shot, but this battle is squarely in the victory column for the citizens.

Not bad for a town whose population was only 261 in July of 2007. We should note that citizens report to us that Senator Richard Shelby and Balch & Bingham have been instrumental in aiding the citizen opposition group.

We're hopeful for once, in both of their careers, that these two very unexpected allies will remain on the right side of this issue, and not be up to any of their usual tricks that could spell big trouble for this small community.
ConecuhWoodsRuling10-25-2011

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Environmental and Human Rights Organizations In Alabama Form an Alliance On Pollution Issues

For Immediate Release  

October 3, 2011

Birmingham-Metro Chapter NAACP Presents Grand Town Hall Meeting on the Environment

Panelists Will Focus on Local Pollution Threats: Shepherd Bend Mine and “DeadlyDeception”

Birmingham – The Birmingham-Metro Chapter of the NAACP will present a Grand Town Hall Meeting and Public Forum about the Environment on Friday, October 14th from 7:00 to 8:15 PM.   

Panelists will focus on two local pollution threats: the Shepherd Bend Mine proposal across the river from Birmingham’s drinking water intake facility and the recent “Deadly Deception” controversy in the Collegeville area.  The free public event will take place at Glen Iris Elementary School 1115 11th Street South Birmingham, AL 35205. 

Panelists will include representatives from the Alabama Rivers Alliance, Birmingham Faith in Action, Black Warrior Riverkeeper, Cahaba Riverkeeper, Citizens Opposed to Strip Mining on the Black Warrior River, Coalition of Alabama Students for the Environment, Collegeville area residents, GASP, Green Initiative at UAB, University of Alabama Environmental Council, and University of Montevallo Environmental Club.

“We are honored that the Birmingham-Metro Chapter NAACP invited us to join these esteemed panelists,” said Charles Scribner, Executive Director of Black Warrior Riverkeeper.  “The Shepherd Bend Mine poses a unique threat to Birmingham’s drinking water.  This forum presents an exciting opportunity to increase public awareness about the proposed coal mine and the University of Alabama’s potential role in stopping it.”

Click here to view event flyer:

www.blackwarriorriver.org/pdf/EnvironmentTownHall10.14.11.pdf

Click here for more information about the Shepherd Bend Mine proposal:

www.blackwarriorriver.org/news/help-protect-birmingham-s-drinking-water.html

 

Black Warrior Riverkeeper (www.blackwarriorriver.org) is a citizen-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect and restore the Black Warrior River and its tributaries. A member of Waterkeeper Alliance, Black Warrior Riverkeeper won Alabama Environmental Council’s 2007 Conservation Organization of the Year and American Canoe Association’s 2008 Green Paddle Award. Nelson Brooke, Riverkeeper, won Alabama Rivers Alliance’s 2010 River Hero Award.  In 2011 the Black Warrior became one of America's Most Endangered Rivers. For more information, contact:  Charles Scribner, Executive Director, Black Warrior Riverkeeper: (205) 458-0095 or Rev. Anthony Johnson, Community Relations Director: Birmingham-Metro Chapter NAACP: (205) 541-9719

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Developing Stories--Conecuh County Landfill and BP Contract $$ to Senator Trip Pittman

"No Opposition"?

Conecuh County, Town of Repton--The controversial mega landfill planned for Conecuh County saga is heating up again with the owners of the landfill (Conecuh Woods, LLC) filing for a dismissal of the case citing there is "no opposition" to the landfill.

March 11, 2011:

With more than 400 people seated in the auditorium and hundreds more in line at the start of the hearing, five county commissioners listened as Stone and his attorney took about 30 minutes to defend the Conecuh Woods LLC project that would be built on a 5,100-acre tract.

During several hours of the hearing, with people allotted five minutes to speak, six supported the landfill, while hundreds opposed it.

A hearing is scheduled for this Wednesday, September 21 @ 11:00 am in the Conecuh County Courthouse.

Opposition to the landfill is fierce and lawsuits have been filed to stop the project. "No opposition" is a non-starter of an argument, but that never stopped crafty lawyers from obfuscating the reality of an issue with propaganda before. It will be interesting to see how the court rules in the motion to dismiss.

The "Republican tractor" Senator Pittman

Baldwin County, Alabama--According to a report in today's Baldwin County Now, Grand Jury subpoenas have been served on Fairhope Mayor Tim Kant, City Administrator Greg Mims, Purchasing Manger Dan Ames and Information Technology Director Jason Colee "in that probe of the $635,000 contract to Pittman Trucking Company of Daphne in 2010" for post BP spill cleanup services.

Senator Pittman defended himself by feigning ignorance because he had not yet had the ethics training mandated by the state when the 'sweeping ethics reform package" was passed by the Alabama legislature in December 2010.

The Pittman Trucking Co. is owned by Senator Trip Pittman-R and Bob James of the Baldwin County Commission. Former Alabama Governor Bob Riley put Senator Pittman in charge (along with Rep. Steve McMillan-R) of $1.2 million dollars allotted to Baldwin County from BP to administer at his discretion:

The issue has grown out of Pittman Tractor Co. winning a bid from Fairhope to provide booms around the city and the Grand Hotel in the wake of the oil disaster. Citizen activists have filed a complaint with the state Ethics Commission saying Pittman’s company should never have even bid for the job, much less received it, because not only is he a state senator, but he also had been chosen by Gov. Bob Riley to help oversee BP funds coming into Baldwin County.

The Alabama Ethics Commission answered the complaints by refusing to investigate Pittman and James. Have the feds finally taken notice of the huge impropriety of the senator's (and the former governor's) actions?

More on the back-story here
*Updated Monday PM--David Ferrara Mobile Press Register story on Pittman inquiry

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Birmingham NAACP Chapter Enters Shepherd's Bend Coal Mine Controversy

NAACPShepherdBendMineLettertoUA

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Obama Administration Sides With Big Polluters--Orders EPA Implementation of Tighter Smog Regulations to Halt

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Friday sacked a controversial proposed regulation tightening health-based standards for smog, bowing to the demands of congressional Republicans and some business leaders.

Obama overruled the Environmental Protection Agency and directed administrator Lisa Jackson to withdraw the proposal, in part because of the importance of reducing regulatory burdens and uncertainty for businesses at a time of rampant uncertainty about an unsteady economy.

The announcement came shortly after a new government report on private sector employment showed that businesses essentially added no new jobs last month -- and that the jobless rate remained stuck at a historically high 9.1 percent.

The withdrawal of the proposed regulation marks the latest in a string of retreats by Obama in the face of Republican opposition. Last December, he shelved, at least until the end of 2012, his insistence that Bush-era tax cuts should no longer apply to the wealthy. Earlier this year he avoided a government shutdown by agreeing to Republican demands for budget cuts. And this summer he acceded to more than a $1 trillion in spending reductions, with more to come, as the price for an agreement to raise the nation's debt ceiling.

Read more here 

Earthjustice response

In the face of this disappointing retreat by Obama, the president has the nerve to include the following statement as a disclaimer of sorts:

"I will continue to stand with the hardworking men and women at the EPA as they strive every day to hold polluters accountable and protect our families from harmful pollution," he said

Really?

Is this how you plan to embark on that endeavor Mr. President? 
photo credit: Juan's Rants

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Earthjustice August 2011 Report on Coal Ash Toxicity--"State of Failure"

Despite the Alabama legislature's attempts to appear like they were doing something beneficial for the citizens of Alabama's health and environment, with the passage of SB80, a bill designed to regulate dry coal ash disposal, it's a 'dam' shame the wet coal ash storage ponds, maintained at APCO utility plants around the state, remain unregulated. Was the exclusion of these dams that by accident or by design?

APCO registered twenty-six lobbyists for 2011, according to figures with the Ethics Commission, and they all worked hard on our lawmakers to pass the coal ash bill despite the impassioned outcries from the citizens of Perry County, Alabama. Those citizens have served as a test case of what SB80 will do to our communities, but no one on Goat Hill listened to their pleas--choosing instead to do what they were told to do on behalf of the small army of APCO lobbyists.

Landfills are a toxic soup in and of themselves. Adding coal ash to our landfills and promising that regulations from SB80 will safeguard our communities and groundwater from any untoward effects of that action is hubris personified, with a stench of possible payoffs and corruption wafting from the inception and process of that bill that's hard to ignore.

Our laws and regulations in Alabama were woefully lax on landfill monitoring, inspections and enforcement before this bill, and passing SB80 won't change what's inherently wrong with ADEM--their utter failure to protect the citizens of this state from big polluters and their waste products. Particularly the low income and minority communities where most of these industries and waste dumps are located.

Conspicuously absent from this legislation was any language to tighten controls on the existing wet coal ash ponds, and the problematic dams that surround them, located around Alabama and almost exclusively at the state's electric utility sites.

Wet coal ash storage remains unaffected and practically unmonitored and regulated, with the exception of the Rattlesnake Dam at the APCO Gorgas Plant. The EPA has that site on its radar, and APCO is employing its usual stance of we-would-rather-fight-than-comply to back them off of any future scrutiny, in addition to blocking the release of more detailed data by claiming CBI--confidential business information.

According to the EPA's website the final decision on whether to allow APCO's CBI request  is still in process. 

We noted at last count, the Southern Company, (SOCO) had spent at least *26,670,000 for the combined years of 2009-2010 on lobbying in Washington. Tracking their expenditures in Alabama is made more difficult by the unlimited contributions corporations can inject into Alabama's political system, combined with a non-requirement of lobbyists expenditure reporting.

*page 20 "Leadership We can Live Without" The Real Corporate Social Responsibility Report for Southern Company--May 2011, Green America

It boggles the mind that SOCO and APCO spend so much on lobbying and corporate legal attack dogs, but when they are asked to spend some of their enormous profits to upgrade their plants and reduce the overall risk *(est. to be $9 billion in increased health care costs) to hundreds of thousands of people from their toxic emissions, they complain 'if you make us improve we'll have stick it to the ratepayers' and "compliance costs jobs."

*pg 16 of Green America Report

It's a scare tactic argument that's successful on the masses who simply don't know any better and blindly accept the well-honed propaganda machine messages of these corporate behemoths.

Our state regulatory agency, ADEM, functions more as enabler than regulator by their refusal to enforce strict guidelines on APCO. They have grown dependent on the money they take in from the numerous fees they levy against APCO to operate. On smokestack emissions, ADEM charges APCO between $33-$37.00 per ton. The typical emission total per year is in the range of 180,000 tons, and frequently higher. More emissions equals more money. It's a diabolical arrangement in the best of circumstances.

ADEM also does not require any groundwater monitoring (GWM) at APCO's sites despite the enormity of their coal ash storage ponds and their close proximity to our rivers and groundwater supplies.

Dry coal ash is also stored at their sites in quantities that can only be estimated through aerial satellite photos because no records of any actual measurable amounts are available for public examination. It is entirely possible that no one but APCO really knows.

Alabama Power's Gaston Plant Wilsonville, Alabama. The Coosa River is on the right, one of the two wet coal ash ponds is wider than the river. Additional dry coal ash waste areas are in the immediate foreground.

 The state of Alabama set up ADEM in this manner with huge involvement from the utility giant in writing the rules. They hold onto this archaic arrangement in the same way aided and abetted by like-minded politicians eager to sweep the only thing green about APCO, their monetary influence, into their campaign coffers. This too is a diabolical arrangement that ends in predictable outcomes.

We suspect the utility companies, anticipating future problems from the EPA, sought the passage of SB80 to allow them to clean out their nearing capacity wet storage ponds, dry the waste, and ship it to landfills statewide, in addition to recycling the product for everything from road building to kitchen counter tops:

"This is a classic leap-before-you-look EPA initiative, where health and safety questions get asked only after the fact." Through Freedom of Information Act requests, PEER also recently found that the EPA had allowed the coal industry to edit information regarding coal ash use in products, including promoting "beneficial uses" while downplaying or completely eliminating mention of possible risks.

Burning coal for electricity generates more than 100 million tons of coal waste a year, but about half of that winds its ways back into consumer products, on food crops, or in structure- or road-building materials. Coal ash is routinely mixed into cement, drywall, kitchen counters, and carpet backing, and used in retaining walls and as ground fill. Because it is often laced with arsenic, lead, and other heavy metals, many toxicologists say more research is needed about what we're putting in the ground (and potentially the water supply) and in our homes. But as of now, industry is running wild—and making a pretty penny—possibly at the expense of our health. "We cannot and should not view agricultural lands as suitable waste-disposal sites for industrial or societal pollutants, just because it's cost-effective in the short term."

Earthjustice lays out the existing problems in their latest report appropriately entitled "State of Failure." Tables 2 & 3 (ppgs. 10 & 11) contain data detailing the failure of strict supervision and safeguards that should be required by our state regulatory agencies on coal ash disposal.

Page 14, in the report, labels Alabama the "worst of the worst" when it comes to coal ash disposal:

Alabama represents the worst of the worst when it comes to coal-ash disposal. 

First, Alabama has no laws or regulations on the books to specifically ensure the safety of the state’s coal ash dams.
It is the only state in the country without such laws. 
Because there are no federal laws to ensure dam safety, this essentially means that Alabama dams are completely unregulated. Until 2011, Alabama also completely exempted coal ash disposal in landfills. Consequently, coal ash from its ten coal-fired plants has been dumped mostly in unlined, unregulated, and unmonitored ponds and landfills. Given the historical absence of controls on coal ash disposal, it is outrageous that more than 5 million tons of ash from the Kingston TVA spill was shipped to Alabama for disposal.

State oversight of Alabama’s dangerous dams is also totally missing.

None of the state’s 15 coal ash dams have been subject to state regulatory inspections in the past five years. After inspections by the EPA and TVA contractors in 2009-2010, five of the dams were given poor ratings and two had to make immediate repairs to improve stability. Alabama dams are, on average, the tallest and largest coal ash dams in the 12 most dangerous states. The average height is nearly 7 stories tall (over 66 feet), and the average surface area is greater than 192 acres (about 151 football fields) more than twice the average of coal ash ponds in the other nine states. These large ponds pose high threats—two of Alabama’s dams are high hazard, and 11 are significant hazard dams. Lastly, these ponds are old-the average age of an Alabama coal ash pond is 40 years. According to the EPA, that’s the estimated lifespan, but Alabama utilities have announced no retirement plans.

Alabama’s coal ash ponds disproportionately impact low income communities and communities of color. The EPA statistics show that more than 40 percent of the citizen’s living near coal ash ponds in Alabama is non-white. Also, about 25 percent of nearby residents are below the poverty line, which is more than twice the national average poverty rate of 11.9 percent.

The facts and statistics are a sobering eye-opener into the serious risks that Alabama's governmental agencies and lawmakers stubbornly continue to ignore in favor of big business wants. A grim picture emerges of a system completely devoid of stringent accountability coupled with a total lack of consistent oversight. We, as citizens, have no choice but to live in a "state of failure" when it comes to the protection of our communities from corporate and political Alabama, and it's a risk we should not be forced to accept.

State of Failure

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In a League of His Own--Mayor William Bell

Birmingham Mayor William Bell is doing his level best to sidestep any taint from the Walter Energy contamination in north Birmingham by claiming that “until spring of this year he’d never been notified of soil contamination.” Bell’s coziness with the Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA), the entity who lured *Walter Energy away from Tampa where they had been headquartered since the end of WW II, makes us wonder if he’s being truthful about what he knew and when, or slyly covering for the generous corporate campaign and event sponsor at the direction of the BBA.

*entry #243--"I wish they were all this easy," said a beaming Jim Searcy, vice president of business and industry retention at Birmingham Business Alliance.

William Bell has always been a team player, but it's questionable whose team he has been a member of all these years--the one that benefits him or the one that steps up for his constituent's interests. Why isn't he going to bat for his citizens in north Birmingham? All we're hearing from him is excuses of why no one should put the bead on him for any responsibility in the toxic mess.

(On a side note, Walter Energy is up for takeover after their CEO of three months decided to call it quits. Watch for the next corporate owner to be hailed as yet another big bucks entity coming to Birmingham.)
 

In a recent CBS 42 “Deadly Deception” clip, Mayor Bell incredulously claimed that he was not permitted to even communicate with the EPA about the decades-old issue in north Birmingham or anything else EPA related:

“The EPA still had the Mayor of Birmingham, not William Bell, but the Mayor of Birmingham listed as being banned from being able to communicate any form, way shape or form, with the federal government, in particular the EPA.”

What Mr. Bell was referring to, and twisting to suit his purposes, is a move by the federal government in 2009 that came after former Mayor Larry Langford was indicted on bribery and conspiracy charges, which placed him on a federal “Excluded Parties List:”

Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford no longer has the authority to sign federal grant applications or enter into agreements that involve federal money as a result of his indictment on bribery and conspiracy charges.

Langford's name was placed on the federal government's Excluded Parties List -- a list of people and organizations barred from conducting business with federal agencies -- by the Environmental Protection Agency in March. Langford received a notice of the action in late February.

That action by the feds was to prevent Langford from having any more authority over federal grants and monies. It did not mean that Bell was "barred" from communicating with the EPA like he would have everyone believe with his recent statements. Unless he wants us to think that the EPA would not be willing to take a call from him that should have gone something like this:

‘I need help over here in my city Region 4, my residents are sick and dying because of a nearby coal plant. I'm hearing from them every day. We have three schools in the area and I am really worried about the children. Could you please send someone over here to do some testing and let’s see what we have going on over here?’

Bell never made that call and he’s never shown any concern for those residents until CBS 42 pulled back the curtain on the whole deal through their investigative reporting. Has anyone with CBS 42 put two and two together and questioned, among themselves, the validity of what Mayor Bell is now offering as an excuse?

Giving Bell the benefit of the doubt, that he really didn't understand, is not any more comforting because it suggests he isn’t sharp enough to comprehend the 2009 decision. The leader of a large metropolitan area should be quick on their feet in the critical thinking department and possess an ability to fully understand the detail and meaning of any federal actions directed at his city.

Blaming his inaction on Larry Langford's misdeeds is a lame ploy. And Bell knows it. He's a savvy political player who's well-versed in the game of misinformation and distraction.

We think he's playing the ‘I didn’t know’ card for political duck and cover in a publicly embarrassing situation while following the scripting of certain corporate interest coaches.

Much like the Birmingham News, who won't break themselves of the habit of protecting Walter Energy's misdeeds by continuing to use words like "voluntary cleanup," in addition to allowing Walter to continue the incessant parroting of their "good neighbor" and 'not our fault' nonsense.

We also find it ironic that Walter Energy teamed up with the Birmingham Barons and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute for Jackie Robinson Day earlier this year. The Mayor has an on and off reputation for favoritism to minority rights and figures when it seems to suit his own agenda, financial interests and publicity stroking.

It’s a proclivity he often forgets when it comes to the Big Mules and the BBA’s pie-in-the-sky ideas. He’s way too caught up in his chameleon-like changeability of ‘I’m for my people until someone else has an economic scheme that will bring in the money and elevate my importance.’ Luring the Barons to Birmingham is high on Bell's list of importance.

With the Robinson tribute he got the trifecta--he appears (albeit selectively) racially sensitive, Walter Energy grateful and Birmingham Barons bone-throwing all rolled into one. But what has he done for those north Birmingham residents who have been suffering for years so far? Absolutely nothing, because there's no glory in it for him, and he knows he'll get a sackful of angry corporate cats (aka Walter Energy and the BBA) if he gets too involved with the little people.

It's a shame really, because he could have had his own Robinsonesque moment, if only he'd managed to call up enough courage to get on the right team just once in his long and often controversial political career.

Jackie Robinson’s contribution to baseball and his people deserved to have that honor in April, we won’t disagree with that, but of all the sponsors who could have been approached for the event the city chose Walter Energy. The same company who is the number one alleged suspect primarily responsible for the toxic poisoning in the minority neighborhoods of Collegeville and Harriman Park since 1989.

What would Jackie Robinson have said about that choice?

He would have called it what it is: foul ball.

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Hell No--We Won't Go

The purpose of this site is to expose corruption and injustice in forms that affect the lives of many. Sprinkled in-between is strong opinion on matters of public interest, in addition to stories that the owners of this site feel are important to offer to our wide, global audience of readers.

We exist to level the playing field and to try and fill the void that the mainstream media cannot or will not report on for a myriad of reasons: laziness, conflicts of political and advertiser interests, a lack of time and workforce power, and sometimes the deliberate suppression of information the public should know about.

This site has been successful in its purpose if our readership and traffic are indicators of the popularity of truth-telling.

But someone is really upset with us, enough to make threats that wade into the area of a federal crime. They want us to shut up, go away and stop talking about what we cover. Maybe they are uncomfortable with having their misdeeds on the worldwide web for a mass audience to peer into. Maybe they're just too accustomed to getting away with 'it' as a matter of the accepted norm.

They shouldn't be, but that's what the state media has allowed them to do for years--operate right out in the open without harsh examination no matter how much they do to the regular folks. Or the environment. We think that's wrong on so many fronts it's hard to know where to end that miles long list of egregious, and sometimes criminal behavior.

'Let's lean on Max and his gang a little harder so they'll be quiet.'

We've upset the usual suspects with some of our reporting and commentary. We've upset some in the media who sit on lofty perches and sneer down on bloggers as ankle biters outside the realm of "serious journalism." How dare anyone have an opinion, and dare to write about it, unless they are reporter with a mainstream media outlet.

We dare to.

And we'll continue to do it.

As long as there is corruption and injustice to write about it, we'll write about it.

No amount of threats or pressure will silence what we have committed to do in the name of exposing wrongs.

Would you expect any less from us our readers?

What say you to those who hide behind anonymous threats of "homes are so fragile....you're debt is now due and payable isn't it?"

Doesn't it sound similar to the the old capos who would send their henchmen into a place of business, in an attempt to intimidate a reluctant-to-being-shaken-down owner: "You have such a beautiful store here, it would be a shame to have it burn to the ground."

Yes, it kind of does sound somewhat similar. The intent is clear.

And to them we say: not just 'no' but hell no, we won't go.

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CBS 42 "Deadly Deception" Documentary August 9, 2011--9:00PM CST

From the leaders in environmental news we can use, CBS 42, Sherri Jackson and Ken Lass bring us full circle with the pervasive contamination in north Birmingham and beyond in their upcoming summation documentary on "Deadly Deception."

In what should be a contender for a well-deserved RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award, this groundbreaking series from CBS 42 proves that one state media organization understands the concept of being unafraid and bold.

For decades the minority population in the Collegeville area of Birmingham have been the victims of toxic secrets, secrets that have cost them not only their health, but many have lost their lives for nothing more than just trying to live their lives. It didn't have to happen to them. The state knew the risks. The EPA knew the risks. Many people in positions of authority knew the risks. The citizens directly affected by the contamination were willfully kept in the dark while the profits poured into everyone else's pockets. 

It's happening all over Alabama: a flippant attitude of "better dead than unprofitable" permeates the economic development platform of this state. Jobs and profits trump clean air, clean water and the rights of citizens to exist in communities with a reasonable expectation that they will be safe from exposures that can kill them.

Years have passed, and many Alabamians are just now learning their right to live safely in their neighborhoods has been taken away from them by corporate Alabama. Compounding the tragedy is the fact that it's taken death after senseless death for these people to find out what they have been living with.

Why has it taken this long and why did so many have to die? How many more will?

Don't we have a Dr. "in charge of Alabama now" sitting in the Governor's mansion? Has he cast aside his Hippocratic Oath in favor of a monetary oath owed to his BARD benefactors and similar corporate campaign contributors? The same question stands for our lawmakers: where do their true loyalties lie?

There must be an end to this "deadly deception" and the paying to pollute mindset before any more lives are lost, communities are irreversibly ruined and more schoolchildren are sickened from the complete lack of responsibility by those charged with supposedly keeping us all safe. 

Anything less is not just a "troubling situation"--it's a fatal vision.



CBS 42 Deadly Deception Documentary-1

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"Capitol City Plume"--Fifty City Block Toxic Underground Plume in Montgomery, Alabama

This story has a compelling similarity to the Walter Coke contamination in north Birmingham--state and federal environmental officials have known about the contamination for decades and have been slow to act in cleaning up the area, while development has proceeded at a fast clip. A statewide pattern seems to be finally making its way onto the public radar revealing Alabama to be systemically and dangerously contaminated.

There's a tradeoff cost in human health and life that doesn't seem to figure into our governmental and business leader's plans. We cannot seem to count on EPA Region 4 for help either--they too seem to be carrying the water for the developers and getting into the *PR business outside of their environmental and public safety watchdog purview.

*(linked further on down in article on the phrase "revitalization of downtown Montgomery")

How many other areas in Alabama is the deadly deception going on unbeknownst to the potentially-vulnerable-to-exposure general public? And why?  Here's a list for Alabama from the Center For Public Integrity National Priority sites. Five Alabama sites are on the "Most Dangerous Superfunds Sites" list. The Capital City Plume, according to the census figures from 2000, was affecting a population of 209,615.

News story July 26, 2011 Associated Press via Al.com state wire:

The Environmental Protection Agency has identified the Montgomery Advertiser as one of the entities that may have caused the plume when operating at its former location.

County Commission Chairman Elton Dean said he remains confident that the county did due diligence before purchasing the old newspaper building and turning it into the county's main building after renovations.

News story by Ben Flanagan Al.com September 28, 2010: "Montgomery Commission tests air quality of county building":

"During a search for the source of the problem, a black, sooty substance was discovered in several isolated areas on the original concrete structure, according to a press release. A sample of that substance was collected on Sept. 3 and sent to Sutherland Environmental Company, Inc., where it was analyzed for 58 volatile organic compounds. Fifty-five of the compounds were not detected but small concentrations of *three compounds were detected." *note that the substances are not identified.

Region 4 Superfund

The Capitol City Plume site is located in downtown Montgomery, Alabama. The contaminated ground water plume is believed to exist throughout the downtown area. In September 1993, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) began investigating a report of Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) soil contamination at the Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA) Energy Plant site at the corner of Monroe Street and McDonough Street.

After 17 months of investigative work, ADEM came to the conclusion that there are a minimum of 6 ground water plumes contaminated with PCE and benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX). The site covers an area from Alabama Street (south) to Pollard Street (north) and Court Street (west) to Union Street (east). 

In 1993, soil containing PCE was excavated during construction of the RSA Tower. The soil was removed and disposed of properly. The discovery of the PCE in the soil prompted ADEM to conduct a preliminary assessment of the area near the RSA Tower. The preliminary assessment performed by ADEM concluded that ground water was contaminated with PCE and BTEX.

Field work for the RI/FS began in March 2000 and was completed in 2003. Soil samples and ground water samples have been collected to delineate the areal extent of the contamination plumes. Analytical results from the ground water indicate that the shallow aquifer in the Montgomery downtown area is contaminated with PCE, BTEX, TCE (Trichloroethylene), and metals. 

Installation of 16 new monitoring wells and 16 temporary wells has been completed. The City has removed and plugged two shallow drinking water wells at the Court Street Pump Station but continues to pump drinking water from deep wells.
The City of Montgomery has implemented a moratorium on well drilling in the vicinity of the site (downtown area). Beginning in May 2006, the City began monitoring the ground water contamination through monitoring wells. Monitoring will continue for five years. The City will be sending the ground water monitoring data to ADEM and EPA Region 4.
The City of Montgomery has also been working with EPA in implementing a voluntary phytoremediation effort in the ground water plume to reduce risk to human health and the environment.

A supplemental remedial investigation took place in stages from August 2008 to the present. *Sample results have identified sources of contamination and the time at which the contamination was discharged to the environment.

*Please note the above sentence which states that there are "identified sources of contamination" while this linked narrative from May 11, 2000 cites only "potential sources" generally identified without a specific business name as "a chemical wholesaler, airport maintenance shops, airport fueling areas, an auto repair shop and a dry cleaner."

Site investigation activities are being led primarily by EPA and the United States Geological Survey.

From August 2-5, 2011, EPA and USGS representatives will conduct field sampling activities to further delineate the groundwater contamination as well as to assess if vapor intrusion is taking place in an existing Montgomery County building.

Who's making the decision to "move forward with privately-funded activities" instead of applying for Superfund monies to clean up this massive twenty year old contamination?

On August 1, 2011, EPA will meet with representatives of two potentially-responsible parties identified in a Site remedial investigation, Alabama Department of Environmental Management, City of Montgomery, USGS, and Montgomery Water Works representatives to discuss moving forward with privately-funded activities related to Site characterization and remediation. 

Alabama could have applied for the $600,000,000 made available for Superfund cleanup from the 2009 Stimulus Funds but they did not make any applications for a percent of the available money in this area: (but they did in many other areas for federal handouts)

Hazardous Substances Superfund - (Alabama will not be receiving stimulus funds for this program)

(National Appropriation: $600,000,000)

Description: This program provides additional funding to the Environmental Protection Agency for the Superfund Remedial Program. This program allows states to enter in competitive agreements with the EPA to conduct certain remedial actions at Superfund sites and receive a credit from the government for 90 percent of eligible expenses.

John Archibald, of the Birmingham News, in one of his recent columns offered this statement about Alabama's rampant pollution and economic development mindset: "That's traditional Alabama values again: better dead than unprofitable." EPA Region 4 seems to go along with that idea, especially since they knew about the CC Plume, in the following statements on the *revitalization of downtown Montgomery and the importance of 'sticking to the plan':

Capitol City Ground Water PlumeGround water in western portions of downtown Montgomery, Alabama, is contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE), chemicals commonly used in dry cleaning and cleaning of machine parts. Work to assess the ground water contamination and develop the site’s cleanup plan is currently ongoing. The City of Montgomery is working closely with EPA to facilitate the site’s cleanup. Downtown Montgomery remains open for business during the site’s ground water cleanup. Land uses include retail districts, neighborhoods, parks, offices and industrial areas. The revitalization of Montgomery’s downtown is a major community priority. The area is recognized as the “heart of the city.” Recent redevelopment projects include the Montgomery Biscuits minor league baseball stadium, retail centers, downtown apartments and restaurants.

Have our business leaders, politicians, economic developers and state agencies simply lost their minds from the effects of all the pollution or are they just out to eliminate the undesirable elements of Alabama's communities? The location of the Capital City Plume seems to negate the latter, because a large portion of the businesses and developments in the affected area are housing some of our state elites, primarily in the RSA Tower Complex of Montgomery, located in the toxic zone.

So what other possibility does that leave us as to why Alabama continues to labor under the delusion of their favorite hackney-eyed, overused phrase of describing economic development as "world class?" There's nothing blue ribbon or superior about any development that comes with a staggering cost of health to a large segment of people.

Unless Archibald's right--"better dead than unprofitable."

Or maybe it's something else entirely consisting of the usual BARD suspects and their webs of deceit.

Maybe it's a combination of the two strengthened by the political pay to play system our legislators have grown ridiculously accustomed to.

Whatever the reasons, the citizens of this state deserve truth, accountability and transparency with information that directly affects the quality of their lives and not the same old deadly deceptions of business as usual.

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